From wetlands to wardrobes – British FashionTech startup Ponda raises over €2 million for sustainable fashion innovation

Ponda, the Bristol-based biomaterials company pioneering regenerative-material supply chains, today announced the close of a €2.09 million Seed funding round to commercialise its flagship insulation, BioPuff.

The oversubscribed round was co-led by Faber (Lisbon) and Counteract (London), with participation from PDS Ventures, Evenlode Impact and the Royal College of Art – bringing total funding to €5.6 million, combining venture capital with substantial non-dilutive support from Innovate UK and international recognition through the H&M Foundation’s Global Change Award and King Charles III’s Terra Carta Design Lab.

“We’ve designed BioPuff to meet the demanding performance standards of leading brands as a direct alternative to synthetic and animal-based insulation, while remaining cost competitive to enable widespread adoption,” says Julian Ellis-Brown, CEO and co-founder of Ponda. “Every jacket filled with BioPuff doesn’t just avoid emissions, it directly funds peatland restoration, one of the planet’s most powerful carbon sinks.”

In 2025, the European sustainable FashionTech landscape has been active, with several significant funding rounds signalling continued investor interest in technology-enabled sustainability solutions.

Paris-based Fairly Made raised €15 million to advance its platform for measuring and improving environmental and social impact in fashion supply chains, while London startup Fit Collective secured €3.4 million to scale its AI-driven sizing technology aimed at reducing returns and waste. Together these announcements represent at least €18.4 million invested in the sector so far this year.

Within this context, Ponda’s Seed round fits within a wider pattern of early-stage investment into companies developing sustainable, circular and data-driven innovations for the fashion industry, while offering a distinct UK-based contribution through its regenerative, plant-based materials approach.

Matt Isaacs, co-founder and partner at Counteract, adds: “The Ponda team embodies the rare combination of deep scientific expertise and visionary regenerative leadership; their ability to navigate the frontier of wetland regeneration and material science to develop the scalable, carbon-negative solution of BioPuff is profoundly impressive. We are delighted to back a team with the capabilities to make planet-positive materials the global standard.”

Founded in 2020, Ponda is a biomaterials company developing BioPuff, a regenerative, plant-based insulation made from wetland crops grown on rewetted peatlands. Founded out of Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art, Ponda is innovating how performance materials are made – linking ecosystem restoration, regenerative agriculture, and clean manufacturing.

BioPuff is a first-of-its-kind, plant-based insulation made from Typha, a wetland crop cultivated through paludiculture – the rewetting and sustainable cultivation of degraded peatlands.

By linking material innovation with ecosystem restoration, Ponda’s technology produces a high-performance thermal insulation that is already at multi-tonne production scale. According to the company, BioPuff has equivalent thermal properties to goose-down whilst being significantly cheaper and grown from plants that regenerate wetlands.

“By coupling regenerative coastal wetland farming with an advanced material with strong potential in textiles and beyond, Ponda is well positioned to unlock significant business opportunities across multiple industries while delivering meaningful biodiversity impact at scale” said Rita Sousa, Partner at Faber.

Across the world, degraded peatlands emit 2 Gigatonnes of carbon emissions annually and are a growing flood liability – as per data provided by Ponda. The company partners with landowners to rewet these landscapes, grow fast-renewing Typha crops, and convert the biomass into high-performance fibres.

This reportedly creates multiple benefits:

• Flood mitigation: Rewetted peatlands act as natural water buffers, absorbing and slowing surface water.
• Climate benefits: Restored wetlands prevent carbon emissions from drained peat soils and increase biodiversity.
• Circular manufacturing: Typha fibres are turned into BioPuff, a plant-based, regeneratively sourced alternative to both polyester and goose down.

One of the farmers in Ponda’s supply chain, Will Barnard, added: “After this year’s flooding, it’s obvious that restored wetlands can play a pivotal role in protecting farmland and farmers’ livelihoods. Working with Ponda shows these landscapes can stay productive even under pressures like climate change and create new commercial opportunities. Initiatives like this help push the government’s agenda forward while strengthening rural resilience and future income streams.”

By cultivating Typha on rewetted land, Ponda transforms a major emissions source into a carbon sink – allegedly avoiding up to 30 tonnes of CO₂ e per hectare per year. At scale, the company estimates its system could enable the regeneration of millions of hectares of wetlands, enabling gigatonne-level reductions in the future.

The company’s Bristol facility now houses pilot-scale fibre processing, blending, and prototyping capabilities, allowing Ponda to rapidly test and deliver BioPuff at industrial standards. Ponda has already partnered with major global brands including Berghaus, Stella McCartney, Parley for the Oceans, and Sheep Inc, providing material prototypes and co-developing garments.

While Ponda’s early collaborations have focused on outdoor and fashion garments, the company outlines that BioPuff is suitable for a wide range of applications beyond apparel – including soft toys, home textiles, upholstery, bedding and other sectors that require lightweight, warm, and durable insulation.

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